When the lights are off, it’s ‘um … uh … you know’

BRISTOL, Conn. — Cleaning out the fridge of a potpurri of leftovers from the ESPN media workshop at the network’s “campus” in Connecticut (after which I’ll turn off the switch that has led to my ESPN overload):

— During a “SportsCenter/Journalism” seminar, anchor Hannah Storm spoke for 4½ minutes, saying “um” or “uh” 37 times and “you know” 18. I say this not to tease (well, maybe a little), but it’s interesting how one’s focus can wane when the TV lights are off.

(In the interest of full disclosure, in my baby years of newspaper work I appeared on a college basketball postgame radio show. An intern in the office stopped counting at 120 “ums” and “uhs.” I focus harder now when the mike is turned on. The intern now, um, works for the, uh, Washington Post.)

— Rosalyn Durant, vice president of ESPNU, said she expects DirecTV to carry the high-definition signal of her network by the first quarter (i.e., January, perhaps) of 2010.

— In its 15-year agreement with the Southeastern Conference, ESPN is in charge of the football and basketball syndicated package, which WNYA (Ch. 51, or better known as My-4 Albany) used to carry.

“Those games will go far and wide across the country and not just limited to the nine-state SEC region,” said Burke Magnus, ESPN’s senior vice president of college sports programming. “Whoever’s interested in airing them, we have a way to get them access.”

Unfortunately, I didn’t see WNYA on the list. There should be some decent football games on the early Saturday afternoon package.

— More from Magnus, who said despite the Bowl Championship Series package moving to ESPN, “ABC is by no means exiting the college football business.

“ABC is going to remain in the bowl business, as well, in some way, shape or form. That will be finalized in the next few weeks.”

— Good line from ESPN college football analyst and Ohio State alum Robert Smith: “The Big Ten has been seen as MAC Sr. the last couple of years.”

— ESPN’s researchers, a vital part of the operation, shared results of their work, much of which comes from a 5,400-square-foot “Disney Media and Advertising Lab” in Austin, Texas. The lab measures things such as body movements and eye movements to determine what viewers are watching.

Among the findings were that when ESPN allows its “bottomline” ticker to continue through commercials, 81 percent still watched the commercial (good news for advertisers); 13 percent who focused on the ticker.

The network also has done extensive research in how viewers consume sports differently with age. The percentage of “super fans” — those who describe their sports avidness as a 10 on a scale of 1 to 10 — decreases with age, but the number of hours consumed watching sports events on TV increases with age.

— ESPN will air a 30th anniversary edition of “SportsCenter” at 11 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 6 (the network began Sept. 7, 1979), reuniting longtime anchors Chris Berman, Bob Ley and John Saunders. Berman and Lee joined during the first two weeks of operation. Saunders came on board in 1986.